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Fletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith), 1863-1935

"The Middle of Things"

"A tall
man in black clothes, muffled to his eyes! But I'll tell you what, Mr.
Viner," he added with a grin: "as you're so confident, why don't you
find him?"
"Perhaps I shall," said Viner, quietly.
He meant what he said, and he was thinking deeply what might be done
towards accomplishing his desires, when, later in the afternoon, Mr.
Pawle rang him up on the telephone.
"Run down!" said Mr. Pawle cheerily. "There's a new development!"


CHAPTER VIII
NEWS FROM ARCADIA

When Viner, half an hour later, walked into the waiting-room at Crawle,
Pawle and Rattenbury's, he was aware of a modestly attired young woman,
evidently, from her dress and appearance, a country girl, who sat shyly
turning over the pages of an illustrated paper. And as soon as he got
into Pawle's private room, the old solicitor jerked his thumb at the door
by which Viner had entered, and smiled significantly.
"See that girl outside?" he asked. "She's the reason of my ringing you
up."
"Yes?" said Viner. "But what--why? More mystery?"
"Don't know," said Mr. Pawle. "I've kept her story till you came. She
turned up here about three-quarters of an hour ago, and said that her
grandmother, who keeps an inn at Marketstoke, in Buckinghamshire, had
seen the paragraph in the papers this morning in which I asked if anybody
could give any information about Mr.


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